Lull at Lindon 7-11-13

[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Can't hardly plan a trip nowhere in Utah these days if you are a tuber...or are otherwise messed up by the wind. Been a lot more windy days than the other.

Fellow tuber LloydE and I had been having one trip after another wiped out the night before by changing weather forecasts. We finally wrote off Jordanelle, Deer Creek and Starvation and said "The heck with it." Let's just get in whatever time we can at Lindon and be happy widdit.

6:30 am launch saw 75 degree air temp and 76 degree water temp. That's about as close as you can get to a break even point. Better than 32 - 32. Skies were mostly overcrashed with intermittent zephyrs...from all directions. Calm then breezy and from all points of the compass. Intermesting.

The water level in Utah Lake is lower than at this time last year...about a foot lower. Less than 4' of water in Lindon Harbor most places. And you had to go a long way offshore to find any 5' depth. The pipe at the bubbleup is exposed between the last two buoys and the shore. That didn't happen until late fall last year...and last year was a low water year.

Didn't see anything on sonar going out of the harbor and got no love on any of the jigs I pitched to the better holding areas. Headed for the bubbleup and started pitching jigs there by about 7 am. Nary a bump. Not a nibble. White bass are still absent.

Pitched out a bling bead decorated minnow to drag on one rod while I pitched jigs with the other. Didn't take long for the first "inquiry". Turned it into a feisty 20 incher...the standard cookie cutter size for the day. Hollered at Lloyd on the walkie talkie and told him the depth and what I had caught the fish on...4.4 feet...minnow.

Kept working along the pipeline...out about 20 to 30 feet...casting jigs to the pipe and dragging a minnow further out. Got into a ZONE full of hungry kitties and kept pretty busy for the next couple of hours. Couldn't even make a cast and retrieve with the jigs without having to crank the jigs in fast to set the hook on a fish trying to take all my line off through the open bail on my bait rig.

I was put on notice that I have been "elected" to do the annual catfish fry...again...by the end of July. So I decided to keep a limit of kitties to provide the guests of honor. I had my limit of 8 in the basket before 9 am...and released several more. Oh yeah, I caught one ugly mudder too. Took it's picture and sent it back to harass the carp. Lots of them on top today...slurping up midges and black ants that were blown into the water by an offshore breeze early. Carp were acting like brown trout taking caddis. Had several oblivious to my presence swim right up to my tube before noticing me and splashing me with their blastoff.

About 9:30 the breeze got stronger from the SW...just as it was forecast. But then it suddenly turned around and started blowing twice as hard from the NE...the direction we had to go back to get back into Lindon Harbor. Stupid weather forecrashers. Never trust 'em.

Lloyd had 4 cats in his basket and we decided we both had enough for our respective needs...and that we didn't need any more wind. So we boogied into the harbor, fished a few more minutes and hit the ramp.

Didn't get anything around or inside the harbor today. But saw some bank tanglers catching a few bullheads close to shore both outside and inside. That can be fun for the kids and if you hit it right a larger channel cat might cruise in.


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[panfisher]

I have been wanting to hit Bunny Gultch with my toon. Everytime I have a day off the weather is not cooperating.
Doesn't look good this weekend either.
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[a_bow_nut]

I know a place that you don't have to worry so much about the W*#^.

Been some good panfishing there lately also. []
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Definitely gonna hit that spot soon. Thanks for the intel.
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[EvilTyeDyeTwin]

I think the title of this post should be "NEVER a lull at lindon".[]

So I just have to ask....what's with the mask?
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[fish_fear_me2]

Looks like a pleasurable mornin withthe kitties. The way the wind has been you could end up launching at Lindon and beaching at Lincoln Beach.
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[fish_or_die]

Little early for halloween and ghost costumes, don't ya think lloyd?

TD, were the carp just intermittently on top or were they there long enough to get "acupunctured"? My bow is getting dusty...might head out tomorrow morning
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[albinotrout]

Glad you could get out and do some catchin. My last trip I was teased by the fish checking out my baits then high tailing it to other parts.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Lloyd is "older" and fair-skinned. The sun do not like him. He is still recovering from several "precancerous" spots that were just removed from his face and arms.

Been there and done that my ownself. Had several scaly patches zapped off my arms the end of June. In our youth we did not have the benefit of the knowledge...and the sunscreen...that we have today. There is no excuse for sun abuse these days but some folks just assume they will live forever and that common sense does not apply to them. You can read their names on tombstones.

I was made a believer when I lost a close friend who was younger than I am. He owned a guide service on the Kenai River in Alaska and chose to ignore the scaly patches on his ears until the "season" was over. After closing up the operation for the winter he grudgingly allowed his wife to take him in for a looksee. He was dead of melanoma before the next season began.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]The "breezes" kept changing from different directions and were deceptively strong. It was easy to look down and not pay attention for a couple of minutes and find yourself a long ways downwind. Lloyd was in his pontoon...with a higher wind profile...and there were several times he had a long haul back to where he started. Because of a foot problem he was unable to wear fins...for holding position better...and had to use either the oars or electric motor for control. That is tough when it gets "airy".

On one occasion I noticed him several hundred yards to the south of our prime ZONE and asked him on the walkie talkie if he wanted me to pick him up in Provo.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]I explained the mask in another reply...sun protection. Looks funky but gets the job done.

About the carp. They were everywhere on the top of the water...from the time I came out of the harbor until I came back in the choppy north wind. And they were oblivious to everything but sucking in the bugs. There were areas around the bubbleup where you could see a hundred or more...individuals and doubles...working along the surface with their ugly kissers

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I suspect that scenario is a matter of luck and timing. There was a huge hatch of midges at dawn this morning...and they were falling into the water and forming clumps and clusters. Carp popcorn. The black ants are a rarer phenomenon. But most species of fish love ants.

But I really can't remember many trips...if any...that I haven't seen enough carp on the surface at daybreak to have provided a couple of hours of bodacious bow twanging.
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[albinotrout]

I hate the wind when I am on the water.[:/]
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[brookieguy1]

Wind sucks and wind blows. Is Utah getting windier every year or are my finesse jigging tactics just causing me to hate it and notice it more? Seems like the crap never stops!
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[panfisher]

I love pan fishing, can you pm with that spot.
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[FishingLunatic]

I got a little fishing in before it started raining . Ending up catching my biggest cat to date . When I saved the first pic of it that I took, I got the months mixed up lol.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]All of the above.

There have been more windy days this year since April. In my fishing logs there are several weeks in which I have been unable (unwilling) to get on the water for many days in a row. And more trips that have been messed up or blown out by wind.

The wind don't blow in Utah. It sucks.
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[utwalleye]

Hey Pat, tell Lloyde they make a thing called a Buff that protects you form the sun.
It's real thin and it stretches around your face and head and ears. they cost around 20
bucks, one of the best 20's I've spent in a while. It's fairly comfortable not bad at all, with a hat and sun glasses your face can be completely covered.
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[WaveWolf]

[#502800]Black Ants are like tiny top sirloins and carpenter ants are like tiny tenderloins......... It is amazing to me that a fish can even see a #22 carpenter ant.[/#502800]
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[WaveWolf]

[quote utwalleye]
Hey Pat, tell Lloyde they make a thing called a Buff that protects you form the sun.
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[#502800]Where did you get yours? I have seen them on some of those bonefishing shows and I've asked about them in some sportshops. They don't know what you're talking about?[/#502800]
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Lloyd knows all about the Buffs. He is of the frugal persuasion...and his wife is very creative. She is the one who fashioned the cover.

The facial covering is not only good sun protection. Many of us look much better that way.
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